


Icarus

by beta_mirach



Series: fuck canon i'll do it myself [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alcohol Withdrawal, Alternate Canon, Angst, Background Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Relationship, Family Feels, Fluff and Humor, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Queerplatonic Relationships, Rated For Violence, Slow Romance, Volume 7 (RWBY), everyone is pining, i tried for humor at least, language typical of six young adults who all share one braincell, pre-ironqrow but it's a major slow burn, won't happen in this installment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:55:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25406512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beta_mirach/pseuds/beta_mirach
Summary: In a better world, where things go just a little bit differently, Team RWBY and their friends reach Atlas and safety. Their troubles never over and their enemies ever diligent, they must learn to rely on and help not only each other, but their newfound allies too. Struggling with the new weight of responsibility and guilt, things get a lot worse before they start to get better. Fortunately, they have each other, and with the help of friends new and old, maybe this time things will turn out happier than they have before.A kingdom away, Team CFVY works diligently to track down The Crown, a semblance trafficking ring, and it's mysterious leader. With the help of Team SSSN and a few powerful new friends with a penchant for trouble and a bond unbreakable even by the Gods, they find themselves in the middle of a fight they never saw coming.(Note: this is mostly canon compliant up until the end of v7 with the addition of a few scenes and some minor changes. It almost completely ignores Before the Dawn. It does include a *heavy* focus on OCs, however. If you just want to read the RWBY stuff, that'll be the odd numbered chapters: it's not necessary to read either narrative to understand the other.)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Neptune Vasilias/Sun Wukong, Qrow Branwen & Clover Ebi, Qrow Branwen & James Ironwood, Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Series: fuck canon i'll do it myself [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840120
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, here it is. I've been working on this for a while and wanted to get it out before the 'official' release of BTD, which I technically did do. I'm actually pretty proud of this so I hope people enjoy it. 
> 
> This is my first fic, so it's not going to be spectacular or anything but I'm having fun and that's all that matters. Probably gonna be pretty long. Some parts are OOC I'm sure but at this point I'm just glad to have it out. Chapters will be posted in pairs. Oh, and like I said in the summary, you don't have to read the RWBY or CFVY/OC parts to understand the other narrative, if you just want to read one and skip the other, that's fine. 
> 
> I...think that's it. Enjoy!

Nora's foot was tapping.

This wasn’t a new fact. Nora's foot had been tapping for the last two hours. By now, Ruby had mostly tuned it out into background noise, like a clock ticking down the seconds until the ship reached Atlas. It was just that she was really tired, and the adrenaline had finally worn off, and she just wanted to get to Atlas already, and Nora’s tapping was not really helping. 

When she'd thought of Atlas in the past, it had always been because of Weiss or Penny. She would imagine how Weiss grew up, wonder what her family was like, her old friends, if she missed them and thought about them. If she was okay, after the Fall of Beacon, safe but afraid and dreaming about Pyrrha and the friends they lost and the home they could no longer share. 

But Penny… she used to imagine one day coming here with her friend. Having her show her around the academy, all the cool spots she knew, getting to hang out together like they did back at Beacon. Meeting the man who built her - what was he like? Did he look like Penny? Did he have a husband, wife, a partner that would help him raise her? 

Was he alone now, too?

Sitting here, thinking about Atlas, colossal in her mind and looming ever closer, she felt what could only be described as dread. Penny was dead. Her friends were exhausted, traumatized by their fight or tired of struggling everywhere they went. She didn't know if it'd be better there, if they'd be safe, and she couldn’t stand to reassure them only to disappoint them again. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, willing away her fear before looking out at her friends again.

They’d split themselves between the airship naturally, her teammates on her left, JNR and Oscar to her right. Oscar sat further away from them, still new to their group and inexperienced with this kind of danger. She'd have to talk to him again later, ask him how he was handling this. It couldn't be easy going from a life as a farm boy to having another soul in your head, shoved into an unwinnable war you never even knew existed. 

Weiss was tense in front of her, looking more and more uncomfortable the closer they drew. Ruby nudged her knee with her foot and gave her a small smile. She remembered the exhaustion in Weiss's voice back at the farm, prompted by the Apathy but speaking from her heart when she asked if they were really going there. Ruby worried about her. Would she be okay? Would their friends?

Would Ruby herself?

Before she could say anything to her friends, ask them all how they were feeling, maybe, her uncle spoke for the first time in hours. “Hey,” he said, sounding more cheerful than Ruby had heard in a while, turning around to look at them all. “If you’ve never seen Atlas in person before, you won’t wanna miss this.”

Relief washed over Ruby as she climbed to her feet. It would be okay, she assured herself. They were here. It’d have to be okay. She glanced back at her friends as they stood and helped each other up, then took a deep breath and slipped up behind her uncle’s seat. Her teammates came and stood next to her. “Is it weird that I’m sort of nervous?” She asked her sister, feeling strangely timid.

“No,” Yang agreed. “I’ll believe we’ve made it to Atlas when I see it.”

“Well,” Weiss began proudly, drawing their attention from each other. “Believe it.”

Ruby followed her gaze and gasped as the clouds parted. She’d heard so many stories, seen pictures and documentaries over the years, but oh. No digital capture could ever do this city justice. It was enormous, gorgeous, breath-taking in a way she could never have expected. Towers and buildings lit with a soft blue glow drew her eyes first, with silver metalworking on the bottom of the rock - she’d have to ask her uncle what that was for. What appeared to be several massive tethers stretched from it to the ground below, and she stood on her toes to see Mantle down below, shining with a soft golden light.

As the airship swooped closer, she could hear the thump of her friends’ footsteps as they rushed to the windows, and a soft exclamation from Nora.

Maria smiled to herself. “You know, you make the trip up to Atlas over and over, but you never get used to that view.” There came a clicking sound as one of her eyes malfunctioned, rolling over and swaying. “Oh come on!” She complained in annoyance, smacking it lightly on the side. 

As Ruby turned to check on her, she noticed the nervous look on Weiss’s face. Fear and worry crept through her, stealing her smile and squashing her relief.

“Weiss, what is it?” she asked, concerned. Was something wrong? She knew Weiss wasn’t pleased about returning to Atlas, the prospect of seeing her family again, but just moments ago she’d seemed fine. Happy even, proud to see her friends reacting to the wonders of Atlas for the first time. What could be wrong now?

Qrow turned to look at her too. Weiss’s head slowly turned up. Dread settling in further, Ruby looked up.

“The Atlas air fleet.” Weiss said softly, as they stared at a sky dotted with more airships than stars. “I knew all of our ships were called back but…”

“They’re set up like they’re expecting an attack,” Qrow finished. 

The radio clicked on with a short buzz of static. A female-sounding voice came over, full of authority. “Manta 5-1, welcome home. Please continue your approach to Atlas docking bay Omega-12. A security team will meet you there. Over.”

Ruby felt another brief spark of panic. “I don’t understand. What’s happening here?”

“I don’t know,” her uncle said. Every trace of relief and joy in his voice was long gone, replaced by worry and confusion.

“But we are here. We got the lamp to Atlas,” Jaune said reasonably. Ruby looked over her shoulder at him. “So, I guess we land and get some answers.” 

“I’m not so sure,” Weiss disagreed. Everyone watched her as she stood in the center of the cockpit. On her other side, Blake looked grim. “I’ve never seen our forces deployed so aggressively. If we land in a stolen ship, there’s no way the security team will let us anywhere near Ironwood. They might even take me back to my father.” 

Ruby’s heart clenched nervously. Forget the possibility of arrest, the uncertainty of their safety. She could not allow Weiss to be taken back to her dad, under any circumstances. She’d heard the fear and pain in Weiss’s voice when she told them of what had happened while they were apart. Over her dead body would Jacques ever get near her partner again. She looked at her sister and saw a similar sort of determination in her eyes, veiled by the question of what to do next.

“So…?” Blake prompted slowly. 

Weiss’s face changed suddenly. “Winter!” She exclaimed, and pulled out her scroll with a soft smile. “Put some distance between us and the fleet,” she ordered Maria as she walked into the back of the ship.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” the older huntress said. The airship roared and they soared down towards Mantle. 

Ruby glanced back at her partner. Weiss caught her eye and waved her off. It’s okay, she mouthed, but her eyes were still uncertain, and her fingers twitched nervously against her scroll. Ruby wanted to go and comfort her, but Yang touched her arm and nodded down to the earthbound city as they made their arrival. Ruby took her sister’s hand and squeezed as Maria guided the ship over a beaten wall and between dim buildings. Gods, she thought, looking around at the people walking the streets and listening to the soft honking of car horns. She’d never seen a city look so tired before.

As they flew down a backstreet, a voice caught her attention. A massive screen was plastered against the side of a building. On it was a projection of General Ironwood, looking far more exhausted than when she’d seen him last. She thought he might have changed his outfit, and he had a new beard covering his chin. She missed the first part of his speech.

“ - cannot express our appreciation enough.” He continued in an echoing voice. Ruby noticed more projections on other buildings, broadcasting to all of Mantle. “Many describe these as uncertain times, and while that may be the case for the rest of the world, I can tell you what is certain. The Kingdom of Atlas will remain strong, and it will remain safe. That is my promise.”

Yang let go of Ruby’s hand. “General Ironwood,” She started sadly. Ruby was suddenly reminded of all that Ironwood had done for her sister. How much she was like him, now. “He looks…”

“Tired.” Ruby agreed. In front of them, her uncle sighed as if he’d been wounded. 

“James.” He murmured. “What have you been doing?”

Ruby was a bit shocked by the emotion in his voice. She hadn’t known they were so close that her uncle would be this upset. She made to say something, to comfort him or ask if he was okay, but became distracted by the scene outside the windows. Atlesian Knights marched down the center of the streets, citizens moving out of their way and shaking their heads in annoyance. Drones flew around a few alleyways, scaring a few children into hiding. Ruby frowned heavily. This was all wrong.

Still in the back of the airship, Weiss echoed her thoughts. “This isn’t right. None of this is right.”

The radio made a reconnection. “Manta 5-1.” The woman demanded. All pleasantries were gone from her voice. “We’ve noticed a detour in your route. You are to make your way to docking bay Omega-12 immediately. Do you copy? Over.”

“We’re kind of running out of time here, kids.” Maria warned.

“We need to ditch the ship,” Yang suggested.

“Agreed.” Qrow said. “Get lost in Mantle and buy ourselves sometime.”

“I’m telling you, my sister can take us to Ironwood.” Weiss argued. Qrow began to turn, but before he could say anything, Blake spoke up and drew everyone’s attention.

“Uhh, Weiss?” Her voice was nervous, and Weiss immediately walked over to her. As the Manta ship moved past another building, everyone saw what had spooked their friend. 

“A reminder,” Winter Schnee said commandingly over Weiss’s noise of confusion, broadcasted on a screen identical to General Ironwood’s. “Failure to cooperate with Atlas military personnel is a punishable offense. If your sector is under lockdown...” The rest was unintelligible as they flew away.

“Winter?” Weiss asked no one, heartbroken and confused.

Qrow looked over at her. Ruby could see the concern on his face, hidden. “No offense, Weiss, but I’m not so sure that's a good idea anymore.”

Weiss turned on him, furious with shock and terror. “There’s obviously something very wrong. If we can just talk to her, then we - “

“Look,” Qrow said abruptly. “I’m not even sure if we should be talking to Ironwood until we know exactly what’s going on in Mantle.” Ruby placed a hand on the back of his chair and stared imploringly at her friend, begging her to understand. Her uncle was right, they couldn’t trust anyone until they knew what was happening here, and Winter was clearly right in the thick of it. They had to play it safe. Her uncle had dealt with rough situations before, he would know the best course of action. They just needed to listen to him, just for a bit.

Maria cut off Weiss’s rebuttal. “Everyone calm down,” she sighed. “I know someone who can help with both.”

The radio clicked on again. Ruby felt the strange urge to break it. “Manta 5-1, you are to make your -”

Maria shut it off. “Geez, lady, take a hint.” She pulled the airship down a few streets into an empty lot and landed. Jaune and Ren scooped up their weapons and filled out first, helping Nora down. Ruby noticed that Ren’s hands lingered on her’s for just a second longer than Jaune’s. She wondered if they were finally going to do something about the feelings they both clearly had.

Blake and Yang went next with Oscar, leaning onto each other. They still seemed unsteady on their feet after Adam. Once everyone was safe, Ruby promised herself she’d talk to them. She was glad they were getting along so well again, but there was still tension remaining, and she didn't want the stress and trauma of what they'd been forced to do to drive them apart. Not when she only just gotten them all back.

Ruby picked up her weapon and hopped out of the airship, turning to help Weiss down after her. “Are you okay?” her friend asked, not letting go of her hands as they moved out of Qrow and Maria’s way. Her fingers were warm but clammy, and trembled finely against Ruby’s. “Things have been so frantic lately, you seem more tired than usual. And I know being here, you used to talk about Penny and I and…”

“Am I okay?” Ruby echoed in disbelief. “I think I should be asking you that. I know you didn’t want to come back here, and it must be hard seeing your sister like that.”

Weiss sighed and leaned against her for a moment. “I think once I know what’s going on, why she and General Ironwood are doing this, I’ll feel better. General Ironwood has made some questionable choices in the past, I know, but he’s always been so focused on keeping people safe. And he’s always been so kind to me, I can’t understand why he’s doing this. I...I’m worried about him. He doesn’t seem okay.”

Ruby hugged her tightly, willing as much warmth and encouragement as she could at her. “It’ll be alright,” she assured her. “We’ll find out what’s going on, and everything will be alright. I promise.”

“You can’t promise that.” Weiss pulled back, leaving a cold pocket where she'd been warm just seconds before. Her heels made her taller than Ruby. Ruby missed the hug already. 

“No,” she agreed. “But I can promise that whatever happens, I’ll be right here. I won’t leave your side.”

Weiss smiled at her thankfully as Blake and Yang came up to them and pulled them along after Maria. Blake was shivering softly but kept refusing Yang’s jacket and Ruby’s cape. They followed the group down the street, passing rushing AKs and soldiers, newsboards touting stories of elections and embargoes. Graffiti tagged garages, calling for people to ‘show their teeth’.

“Come on, now, hurry!” Maria encouraged. “It shouldn’t be much of a walk.”

“Is this many soldiers normal?” Jaune asked Weiss.

Weiss shook her head. “No...at least, I didn’t think so.”

Ruby noticed her sister stop suddenly. Yang was staring at a flying drone as it hovered in front of her. “Yang,” Ruby began, and her sister started walking again. The drone followed. The drone’s camera flashed brightly, and Yang recoiled and kicked instinctively, knocking it into the way of a moving truck. She winced and turned back to everyone, smiling sheepishly when she noticed they’d all stopped to see. 

“Maybe we should pick up the pace.” She said. Ruby caught Blake’s fond eye roll as she turned around and kept walking.

“You have to remember, the Kingdom had just lost the Great War,” Maria explained. “The people of Mantle needed a sign of a brighter future, and that sign was Atlas. After all, a home in the clouds is as bright as it gets.”

As they looked up at the bottom of Atlas, soaring high above the slums of Mantle while Winter Schnee promised their presence was for Mantle’s safety, a truck drove by. Nora turned to follow it, arms crossed as she stared at the workers in the back, dejected and covered in black. “Unless you’re the one having to look up at it.” She scowled. 

Blake nodded in agreement. “This whole city, it just seems awful.”

“Yeah?” a voice slurred. A man came rushing out from a nearby porch. “You don’t like it here? There’s plenty of space out in the tundra.”

Blake stepped back, cat ears lowering. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to -”

“Atlas is the greatest kingdom in the world, alright?” He shouted, cutting her off. Both Yang and Ruby stepped forward, but Blake caught their arms and pulled them back.

“We can’t cause a scene,” she whispered to them.

“But -“ Yang started.

“No. Just ignore him, he’s drunk and not worth it. We can’t afford the attention right now.”

Yang stared at her for a few more seconds, then glanced down at Ruby and nodded. They turned to move again, but the man’s buddy piped up too, sounding equally drunk but not as belligerent. 

“The embargo...the embargo’s got us in a rough patch. But it’ll blow over, you’ll see.”

Spurred on by his friend, the angry man began again. “We try and help the other kingdoms and this is what happens? I say let ‘em rot!” 

“I apologize,” Blake said soothingly, clearly insincere but hoping to smooth the situation over. “I didn’t mean to insult you.”

The man spit on the ground in front of her. “Stupid faunus like you wouldn’t unders...” He looked down as Blake caught Ruby and Yang’s arms again, but she’d forgotten about Weiss. A black glyph appeared under his feet, tossing him up into the air and back into a dumpster. 

“It was worth it,” Weiss said as they all turned back to her. She stowed Myrtenaster away. Blake pushed Yang and Ruby into movement and stalked down after the rest of the group, waiting a block away. Her shoulders were high and tense, and her ears were flattened.

“Blake?” Ruby started.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Weiss.” She said tiredly. “I know that you were just trying to help, but you should have just left it alone. Now we’ve made a scene, and if he or his friend or any witnesses tell anyone, we could be in trouble.”

Weiss looked back at the two men. The angry one was still in the dumpster, but his friend had come out to chase them. He fell on his face after only a few steps. “I don’t think they’re sober enough to tell anyone anything.”

“That’s not the point.” Blake sighed. They caught up with the group and continued walking. Weiss reached out for her, but drew her hand back. They continued on in silence for a minute.

Finally, Maria led them around a corner to a brightly lit back door. It opened before she reached it, sending out a cheerful faunus woman with a prosthetic left arm. “And no more heavy lifting, you hear?” A man called out after her giggles.

“Ah, it’s good to see you again, old friend.” Maria said as she made her way inside. They followed her inside, where a desk piled high with papers was making a lot of noise. Maria tapped her cane and cleared her throat. A drawer slammed shut.

“Ah, yes, yes.” The papers moved out of the way, revealing a well-dressed older man with dark skin and white hair. He adjusted a pair of small round glasses on his nose. “Have we met?”

Ren raised an eyebrow. “Well, this is off to a fantastic start.”

Maria sounded the faintest bit annoyed as she replied. “Cybernetic optical implants? You adjust them. Every ten years or so?”

He squinted at her for a moment, then threw his hands in the air joyfully. “Maria! Yes, with the cybernetic optical implants. I adjust them every ten years or so.” His chair turned and emerged from behind the desk so he could take Maria’s hand and lead her to an examination table. Ruby was amazed to see that it walked on its own. “Oh, wow, has it been that long already?” 

“I know,” Maria agreed. “I age like a fine wine. Would’ve been here sooner if I hadn’t run into these jokers. At the time, I thought they might need my guidance while fighting a little old Sphinx.”

“Oh, did they?” The man asked.

“No, no,” she assured him, hopping up onto the table. “They had much more complicated issues.”

Qrow cleared his throat, redrawing Maria’s attention. “And this is?” He asked, gesturing to the older man. 

"So impatient", Maria chided. "I didn't think I'd need to introduce one of Atlas's finest minds."

"Working in a place like this?" Yang said disbelievingly. A wooden panel from the ceiling creaked and fell loudly to the floor.

"He likes to keep a low profile. Something I've realized none of you know anything about." 

"You can call me Pietro." The man said.

"Finest heart, too." Okayyyy...Ruby thought. She was starting to get the idea that maybe Maria had a little bit of a crush on Mister Pietro. "This pharmacy is just where he volunteers when he's not building the future of Atlas alongside Ironwood up in the clouds."

Ruby regained a little bit of her excitement at that. Pietro seemed kind and patient, if he worked with Ironwood, maybe he could give them some answers. Maybe he could even help them find a safe way into the kingdom in the sky.

"Oh, it's stuffy up there.” Pietro said modestly. “Down here, I get to help the locals and have a little fun. I'm currently working on shoes that make you dance." He did a little shimmy. "You wanna try 'em on?"

Nora gasped. "Yes." 

"Before we get to that," Yang stepped in, squashing Nora's excitement. "We were wondering if you could help us? We came to Atlas hoping to talk with General Ironwood, but, um…"

"What exactly has been happening here?" Blake asked.

Pietro coughed into his hand. "Well, the fall of Beacon took a toll on all of us. James was no different. I couldn't tell you exactly what it was he saw there, but it changed him. He's…"

"He's scared." Qrow finished. He seemed concerned and sad. General Ironwood must have been someone important to him. Ruby wondered what their relationship was like.

"Paranoid would be the more appropriate term." Pietro corrected. "You have to understand, it wasn't just the Grimm. Someone completely dismantles Atlas security code. Made it their plaything. Made us look like traitors to some and buffoons to everyone else. Whoever managed to do that is either a genius or one of our own. I fear the answer may be both. And so does the General."

Ruby's revived hope plummeted again. Ren seemed to agree. "Maybe Atlas isn't as safe as we thought," he said.

"After we came all this way, we can't just leave, can we?" Oscar asked. Ruby felt bad for him. Ozpin had pried him away from a life of normalcy and sent him into the arms of danger. It wasn't fair to him. Wasn't fair to any of them.

"How does the council feel about all of this? Or Winter Schnee? Do you know anything about her?" Weiss asked.

Pietro folded his hands over his stomach. "Well, the council's so scared they'll agree to whatever he wants. Though, some representatives from Mantle...Wait, you're Weiss Schnee." He pushed his tiny glasses up his nose. Weiss stepped back nervously.

"Wait, what was it that you were trying to say about Mantle?" Yang asked, trying to pull his attention away from her. She stretched out her prosthetic arm towards him as if she could hold him away from Weiss just by reaching out to him.

Pietro turned to her and locked his eyes onto her arm. "You painted it."

"What?" She said, drawing back. 

Ruby stepped in carefully as Blake came up on Weiss's other side. "Is everything okay?"

"You're Team RWBY." Pietro realized.

Ruby looked rapidly at her teammates. "You know us?" She asked, both excited and anxious. 

"Oh, my girls, I do. I most certainly do. And I feel like such a dunce for not recognizing you sooner. My daughter's told me so much about you."

His daughter? Ruby straightened. Who? She'd only met a few people from Atlas back during the Vytal Festival, was it one of them? Penny's teammate Ciel, maybe? Maybe...

Maybe Penny herself?

"Your...daughter?" She said, still trying to think it through. He didn't seem upset enough for it to have been Penny. It had been nearly two years since her friend's death, but Ruby was still broken over it. Still dreamed of the blankness on her face after she was torn apart, saw her in Cinder's place as she pierced Pyrrha through. Surely if this man had been her father, he'd have still been devastated too.

Before he could answer, a blaring alarm tore through the night. People began screaming faintly outside the shop. "Trouble," Jaune said, and led the charge outside.

"Wait!" Pietro called, but the time for talking was over.

They scattered across the street as people ran to shelter. Next to Ruby, Yang cocked her gauntlets, echoed by the sounds of their friends unsheathing their own weapons.

"I guess the city defenses aren't doing much." Oscar observed. Ruby spared a prayer that his limited training would be enough to help him now.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Nora said, sounding greatly unimpressed. 

Several yards in front of them, a Knight was thrown heavily into a post, denting it backwards. Another followed, this one torn apart and crackling with uncontained energy. Three other Knights, still on their feet, backed up into view, firing at an unseen enemy. Suddenly, the one closest to Ruby was tackled furiously by a hideous cat-like Grimm. She didn’t expect the other two to last long.

She turned back to her friends. "We didn't come this far to fail now!" She said firmly, pulling Crescent Rose from her back and unfolding it in a long, smooth swing. She set the tip into the asphalt and took steady aim at the Grimm as it tore the remaining Knights apart. Several more joined it in a charge in front of her, charging directly at her group. The snarls of others surrounded them on all sides.

Behind her, Yang fired off two shots from her gauntlets and blew past Ruby on her left. Ren darted after her on her right. 

"Hey!" Nora shouted in offense. Ruby glanced back to see her flip over her hammer, land on Jaune's shield, and rocket after Yang and Ren. The three of them sailed through the air, smashing into leaping Grimm and knocking them into the ground. Jaune raced after them, cutting one Grimm in half as it bounded into the air. Another leapt onto his shield and snapped it's massive fangs in his face. He stabbed it in the chest and twisted, pulling the blade out to the side. They faded into shatters of black dust and ice, billowing into clouds as their brethren raced through.

On Ruby's right, Qrow charged under one and sliced it down the middle, hand supporting the dull edge of his blade. He swung through another one, then turned as it's nearest ally leapt over him. He swung his sword in a circle in front of him and unfolded Harbinger, the blade reaching its full length just in time to bury itself in the Grimm's chest. He stabbed it back down into the ground in front of him and struck another twice in the face. As it fell backwards, he kicked his scythe up and straightened the blade, stabbing it into its stomach. Without losing his momentum, he leapt through the cloud of black and cleaved a fourth Grimm in two. 

As he moved forwards, switching his weapon into its gun form, another Grimm paced from an alley. Instead of attacking his back, it turned its attention to Oscar. They charged at each other, but before they collided, Oscar used Ozpin's cane to propel himself into the air. He flipped over, struck its head with a power Ruby didn't know he possessed, and landed safely on his feet as the Grimm crumbled to nothingness. He smiled proudly, staring at his defeated foe, but behind him another was waiting to pounce. Ruby switched Crescent Rose into her rifle and fired a clean shot over his head as it made to attack him. They shared a quick smile, and then Ruby was off, ready to get in on the action. 

As she ran, she spun her rifle back into scythe mode and cut one of the Grimm into pieces. She came up in Oscar's right and fired a quick shot to provide her momentum, activating her semblance. The world simultaneously slowed and sped up, both existing and not existing. She slipped around two more Grimm and emerged on her uncle's left, using her scythe to swing her further away and slice open another Grimm. She threw Crescent Rose into the air, leapt off another, caught it, and spun as fast as she could. She landed at the feet of two other Grimm, the force blowing them back. 

From here she could see both Weiss and Yang. On one side, her partner killed a single Grimm with her sword, then activated several black glyphs on four others. Ren raced past her, bounding off their immobile bodies and attacking with his blades. They hung there for a moment, suspended by Weiss's glyphs, then shattered into pieces.

On the other, Yang was pummeling a Grimm of her own into the ground. Her back unprotected and her attention occupied, another took a chance and pounced at her. It was immediately struck by a gunshot. Blake smiled at Yang but fell victim to the same mistake she'd saved her partner from. She turned just in time to see a Grimm descend on her from above. Before she could shoot it, a green laser sliced it in half. 

Ruby stopped her after-attack short. Where did that come from?

More lasers cut through the remaining Grimm. The alarms, which Ruby had tuned out during the fight, suddenly stopped. A figure flew in front of them, twirling in the sky. It flew up, up in front of the shattered moon before coming down to land gently, and Ruby's heart leapt into her throat. No. No, this wasn't possible. She was seeing things, that was the only possible explanation. She was so tired and stressed she'd begun to hallucinate, she was not actually seeing….

"Penny?" She whispered. She felt dizzy, suddenly, like the world was unsteady under her feet.

Over the blood rushing in her ears, Ruby could barely make out Pietro's voice, calling out to her vision. "Darling," he said. "Why don't you say hello to your friends."

Penny turned delightedly, eyes locking in on Ruby. Ruby acted on autopilot, stashing Crescent Rose away and moving slowly forwards. 

"Sal -" Penny began, crouching down. Ruby stopped, confused by her actions and overwhelmed by the whole situation.

"U -" She continued, and a brief memory floated from the back of Ruby's mind. 

"Tations!" She cried, charging towards Ruby. Ruby had enough mind left to cry out as Penny collided with her. They barrelled backwards, landing in a heap on the ground.

Penny hopped back up immediately. "It is such a pleasure to see you all again!" She said, cheerfully, as if the last time they'd met had been a friendly get together just days before, not two years ago, mere minutes before Penny was torn apart and the fall of Beacon began.

Ruby scrambled to her feet, staring at her friend. Gods, her hair was longer, she'd changed her outfit, she was in one piece now, not quarters on an arena floor as Ruby sobbed by the stands. "Penny," she began thickly, choking the words out. "Penny, I -"

Everything snapped. Ruby staggered forwards, collapsing into her friend's arms as she cried. Penny's hands fluttered at her back and arms, trying to sooth her but not knowing what to do, and it was such a Penny thing that it just made Ruby cry harder. She sobbed desperately, clinging to her as she cried out every emotion she'd repressed since waking up in her bed in Patch. She pulled Penny tighter against her, afraid that if she let go, she'd lose her again. She couldn't let herself believe it, not yet, but she wasn't willing to give the gods the chance to take this from her now. Not when she'd just been given a chance to have her friend again.

"I missed you," she said, over and over. "I'm sorry," she cried, unable to stop. 

Their other friends gathered around them slowly, forming a tight circle hug around the two. When they all stepped back, Yang squeezed her shoulder and took Blake's hand. Weiss stayed next to them, laying her hands on Ruby and Penny's elbows. 

Blake turned to Pietro. "I thought she died?"

"Died?" He repeated. "Well, I guess in a manner of speaking, she did. But we were able to recover her core from Amity Arena once it had made its way back to Atlas. It took me some time, but…" He gestured towards his daughter. 

Penny took both of Ruby's hands. "I'm good as new!" She promised, reaching up to wipe away Ruby's tears. "Better, even! And now I'm the official protector of the city!"

She sounded so proud of herself. She sounded just like she had before. Ruby sniffled, wiping frantically at her face, but the tears wouldn't stop coming. 

"That's my girl!" Pietro encouraged her. "We're not going to let a little ripping to shreds stop us, are we?"

"No sir!" Penny agreed cheerfully, knocking on her head with a metallic clang. Ruby whimpered. Yang and Blake came up behind her and rubbed their joined hands comfortingly down her back.

"Good to have you back, Penny." Yang said, reaching out with her free hand to take Penny's. 

"Yes, it is good to be back. And I'm so glad that you're here, I've - Oh, dear, Yang, what happened?" Penny noticed Yang's prosthetic and grabbed onto her, looking worried.

Yang laughed a little awkwardly. "I, uh, when Beacon was destroyed, Blake and I ran into an old friend of hers. He cut my arm off. But don't - don't worry. I'm okay, and he's. He's gone now. We don't have to worry about him anymore."

Penny looked between her and Blake. "Well...I'm glad you're both okay then. And now you're a little like me!"

"Yeah," Yang's laugh was real this time. "I guess I am. And I guess your dad made this, right, sir?"

"Well, I made it, sure. But if you're looking to thank anybody, James is the one you want to speak to. He insisted I make this perfectly for you, told me it was more important than any other task I had."

"Still, thank you." Yang said. "I'll be sure to thank him too… if we ever get to talk to him."

"Oh, of course!" Penny said, looking back at Ruby. "You'll want to talk to General Ironwood! I'll go with you! We have so many things to catch up about. I cannot wait!"

Another sector of alarms began blaring again. Without changing her tone, Penny finished; "It seems we will have to wait."

As she stepped back, Ruby latched onto her again. "No no no, don't leave. Please, please don't leave."

"Ruby, I have to go help," Penny said. "Those people can't defend themselves, I have to go help them."

"Then promise - promise you'll come right back. Please."

Penny looked at her gently, then nodded firmly. "I promise," she agreed. "I'll come right back. In fact, I'll meet you at my father's shop, okay?"

Ruby nodded. Penny studied her for a moment longer, concern in her eyes, then stepped forward and kissed her forehead. "I promise." She repeated, and flew off into the night.

Ruby took a deep breath and held it, trembling softly. Weiss wrapped her arms around her and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. On her other side, Yang moved up in front of her to kiss her hair. Blake took Ruby's hand with her free one and squeezed it. After another minute, they parted. 

Jaune, Ren, and Nora came up and hugged her tightly. Oscar lingered awkwardly in the back, but reached out to squeeze her shoulder when they stepped back. Her uncle came up and tucked her into his side carefully.

"So I have, like, a million questions." Nora said, skipping over next to Ren. She wasn't as cheery as usual, but she looked leagues better than Ruby felt right now.

"Thankfully," Pietro said, turning to head back to his shop. "I have about a thousand answers. But let's get out of this weather first, what do you think?" 

Maria fell in next to Yang and Blake as they followed him. "I have absolutely no idea who that child was. Is she important somehow? What made Ruby so upset?" She questioned them, trying to keep her voice down. Ruby could hear her anyway. Weiss touched Oscar's shoulder and nodded for him to follow.

As her uncle led her after them, they passed Ren, Jaune, and Nora. "That was... unexpected." Jaune said first.

"Never a dull moment," Ren agreed as Nora took hold of his arm and looked tiredly up at him.

"But I wouldn't say unwelcome." Qrow said over Ruby's head. "I was honestly expecting things to go a lot rougher. Come on, let's get moving."

They all began the short trek back to Pietro's workshop. Only a few steps in, Ren stopped suddenly.

"Kid?" Qrow began, letting go of Ruby.

The second his arms had separated from her, she was falling forwards. Jinn's lamp fell from her belt, rolling a few feet away. She could see her teammates all fall too, and heard her uncle gasp and release Harbinger before he fell with a loud thud.

A thousand emotions raged in Ruby's head. She was afraid, afraid for her friends and herself, of what was going to happen next. She was angry, too, that they'd come this far, made it all this way, only to be trapped like flies in a spider's web right when they thought victory was in reach. Her happiness at seeing Penny had been growing, but lying here now with no way to move and the lamp out of her reach, she felt as if she'd lost her all over again. And then…

Then her anger turned to fury. 

"Good work, team." A cocky voice said. Ruby wiggled until she was on her back and glared up into the eyes of a tall, smug man, spinning a horseshoe around one finger.

"Hey, what's going on?" Oscar yelled. She looked over at him and saw four more people, two men and two women, dressed in military outfits and looking very proud of themselves. The smug man continued past Ruby and stopped to pick up Harbinger, only inches away from her uncle.

"Hey, pal, I'm a licensed huntsman," Qrow snapped. "Just helped save everyone?" 

The man didn't reply. He stepped back and handed the sword to a Knight as it approached. His teammates did the same. As he made a quick round to check the group, he stopped to pick up the relic and hummed thoughtfully. Ruby's anger melted away, replaced by fear all over again.

"Let's get them loaded into the next transport," he ordered. 

"Please!" Ruby said, trying to stay calm. She did not want to cry again. "We were just trying to help."

"What is the meaning of this?" Pietro rushed back and demanded between coughs. "What are the Ace-Ops even doing down here in Mantle?"

"Ace-Ops?" Ruby repeated, confused. 

"Doctor," the man above her said. "Good to see you. Well, we heard a report of an unauthorized ship making an unauthorized landing followed by an unauthorized use of weapons by non-licensed weapons."

Maria nodded, turned, and left. Ruby would have felt betrayed if that didn't just seem like the kind of person she was. 

"If we could just talk this out," Pietro tried.

"They'll be able to talk this out once they get up to Atlas." The man said, tossing the lamp from hand to hand. He turned and gestured to his companions. "Let's move out." He pulled out what genuinely appeared to be a fishing rod and rappelled himself onto a nearby roof. The rest of his team dispersed.

One by one, Ruby and her friends were gathered up, bonds switched from around their bodies to around their wrists, and shoved unceremoniously into the back of an air transport. As she was hoisted up and dropped onto a bench, she caught Pietro's eye over the shoulder of the Knight holding her. I'm sorry, he mouthed. She shook her head and hoped he knew that none of them blamed him.

Her uncle was the last one pushed into the transport. "Now this," He said as the doors slammed shut in his face. "This is much closer to what I was expecting."

Ruby dropped her face into her hands and sighed. Yeah, she thought as the ship took to the air. This was about what she was expecting too.


	2. Chapter 2

Velvet scowled furiously. The first weekend in months that she’d actually gotten a day off, and here she was, swarmed by Ravagers, down two teammates, and defending an injured leader and two idiot tourists.

When they’d finally gotten some time off from classes and missions, Velvet had been hoping to stay out of trouble. Between the inherent struggle of life in Vacuo, training with SSSN, and tracking down whatever scraps of information they could on Carmine and Bertalik’s mysterious employers, she’d been running on fumes and desperate for a break. Instead, Fox had suggested that they take a trip out to Cirrene. 

Cirrene, from what she’d been told, was a small merchant trade settlement out between Coquina and the Vale border. During the Great War, it had been a Mantle base that was later taken over and renamed. Unlike the other settlements, it wasn’t considered a real Vacuan location and was so named and populated mostly by people from other kingdoms. On their way to Shade Academy, Team CFVY had accidentally bypassed it, but Velvet heard about it from other students. It was often a resting point for visitors from the other kingdoms, as it was a place to stock up on supplies and get an escort before hitting the more dangerous parts of Vacuo. 

Unfortunately, these tourists didn’t seem to have gotten the memo.

“Velvet, watch out!” Coco shouted from behind her. The tourists, who weren't actually tourists but a brother and sister refugee pair named Sky and Indi Picotee, cried out before one took a fall.

Velvet ducked and leapt into a side roll, coming up in a crouch. The Ravager’s claws narrowly missed her ears. Before it could adjust its flight, she fired a bolt from Nebula Violette’s crossbow through its wings and turned to check on the two travelers. Indi had been knocked down and was scrambling back on her hands as her brother tugged at her shoulders. For a brief, absurd moment, Velvet was reminded of the crab walk exercises she’d had to do during warm-ups at Pharos.

Another Ravager dove at her from behind, claws grazing at her shoulder. She quickly flicked the crossbow into its sword form. On its next pass, she sliced through one wing, the creature scattering into black dust as the weapon lost its shape. Then, slowly, eyes still trained on the Grimm swarming in the sky, Velvet circled back to Coco and knelt beside her. In her peripheral, she could see the siblings, Indi still crawling on the ground, had nearly made it to the safety of their overturned truck.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” She asked. Usually, she wouldn’t have hovered like this, but she was concerned. With Yatsu and Fox still back in Cirrene, she and Coco were the only people able to defend the civilians, and her friend was down. When the Grimm attacked, Coco had been flung out the back of the truck when the Ravagers had struck it. She’d landed badly in the sand, leg struck by a large crate right after. In her surprise, she hadn’t had her aura engaged, and Velvet had heard the crack of wood against her foot from several feet away.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Coco batted her hand away. “Can you see Gianduja? I lost it when I went flying.”

Velvet scanned the area around them. _There _, she thought. Half-submerged in a sand dune, only a few yards away from her now but guarded by a small gathering of Ravagers. “Over there,” she pointed it out to Coco. “Want me to make a run for it?”__

____

____

“Damn,” her friend sighed. “No, those Grimm are splitting up, we can’t risk going for it now.”

“Are you su-” a flare of silver and red shot over her head and struck the Grimm converging by the truck with a large flash of fire. Coco threw an arm over her face and turned, falling back into the sand. The survivors of the pack scattered and regrouped, screeching as they flew directly at Velvet. She recoiled instinctively and began to reach for her camera just as another explosion separated them again.

“Huntsman!” Sky shouted, scrambling over from where he’d fallen to grab Indi’s arm. “Huntsman! Get up, someone is here,” he encouraged her.

“Huntsman?” Coco repeated, shoving herself into a sitting position again. She and Velvet shared a puzzled look. They were miles from Cirrene and completely lost with no way to contact help. What were the odds that a huntsman had just stumbled upon them?

Intrigued, Velvet turned back to the source of the shot. An unfamiliar young man with tan skin and orange hair stood atop of a large dune, a large spear resting over his shoulder like a bazooka. He aimed it down at the nearest Ravager pack with a steady hand, using the split blade on the front end as a sight. As the cloud of Grimm flew around him, he turned slowly with it, keeping them targeted. Only once his back was turned to Velvet did he steady himself and fire. Another cloud of flame engulfed several Ravagers.

Seemingly satisfied with the carnage, the boy spun the weapon from his shoulder and stabbed the closed back end into the sand at his feet. Eyes still locked on the Ravagers flying in front of him, he unzipped one of the bags on his thigh and pulled out a grey canister with a pointed cap and a yellow stripe around the cylinder end. He dropped it into the open end of his weapon and twisted an area above the center grip, flicking a small tab at the end of the blade. The blades clicked shut and sealed.

He lifted his spear again and readied himself. After a few long moments, two Ravagers dove suddenly towards him. He swung his spear in a long arc, cutting through their wings. As they fell, he reversed directions smoothly and cut their bodies into halves. Once the air before him had turned to black mist, he lifted the weapon back up and dropped it back over his shoulder, this time in a lazy carry. Unconcerned with the other Grimm still flying around, he slid down the side of the dune and stopped in front of Velvet.

“Are you guys okay?” he asked. He looked down at Coco with a raised eyebrow and an unimpressed twist of his mouth.

“We’re fine,” Coco replied immediately, blatantly ignoring the unnatural angle of her ankle. Velvet sighed and opened her mouth to answer but shut it quickly when the young man nodded and suddenly turned back to stare at his previous perch. Up the back of the dune came three more huntsmen.

One of them, a young woman with a head of wild lavender hair and a violet bandana peeking out from under the hood of her brown cloak, stopped at the top to survey the area. Her hand dropped, brushing the side of her cape back and resting on the hilt of her weapon. Velvet squinted at her curiously.

The woman reached up with her right hand and pulled her cloak over her head. Oh, Velvet thought to herself, recognizing the emblem at her bicep and then the flail at her hip. She knew who this was. She’d seen her before, back at Shade and down in the markets of Vacuo. 

This was Bea Shade, the infamous leader of the equally infamous Team BLNC. A ruthless, deadly woman who swung first and asked questions never; who got into more trouble than any person reasonably should. A woman who didn’t follow any rules but the ones she made herself. A huntress born and a huntress raised, blowing every opponent out of the water even as a student. Velvet knew her. Everyone knew her. 

Team BLNC, pronounced 'blanch', was notorious among the older native students at Shade Academy if what she’d heard in the whispered gossip between classes was true. The competitive nature of Shade meant that students rarely held other teams in high esteem, and if they did, it didn’t last for long. Despite this, in the four years Team BLNC had spent at Shade and the three since they’d graduated, their mission success rate and martial prowess had been so great that even students who’d never encountered them personally knew of their reputation. 

They’d won the Vytal Festival in Mistral with ease four years ago and were effectively banned from regional tournaments due to being what locals described as an unstoppable nuisance. They returned to Shade Academy when their roaming brought them to the center of Vacuo, running secretive errands for Headmaster Theodore and churning up trouble in the city streets and clubs. Velvet herself, however, knew next to nothing about them outside of rumors and publicized fact. In fact, last she’d heard, they’d gone down south on another personal mission.

Bea gestured to one of her teammates, a boy with dirty blonde hair and an olive green cap. He stepped up past his friends and drew his weapons, two folding gun-swords, and slid down the dune in the opposite direction of Coco and Velvet. Bea unhooked the flail from her side and went down the front of the sandy hill, heading directly for the biggest Ravager pack. The last boy, tall and elegant against the desert behind him, stayed atop the dune and unfolded a large bow from his back, taking aim at the Grimm flying above them.

The spear-wielder turned back to Velvet and Coco. Behind him, the archer loosed an explosive arrow into the middle of the biggest swarm. Bea offered him a middle finger over her shoulder and smacked her fist against a half-buried metal crate to redraw their attention. It worked.

The ginger boy stabbed his spear back into the ground and knelt next to Velvet. “I’m Lex,” he told them, hands hovering in front of him. “Mind if I have a look at your leg?”

“Coco Adel, Velvet Scarlatina,” Coco responded, gesturing between the two of them and extending her leg. “And go ahead.” Velvet was a bit surprised at how quickly her friend had accepted and raised an eyebrow as their eyes met over his head. Coco merely shrugged.

Well, she thought, if he was willing to be helpful, why deny him?

As he drew Coco’s ankle into his lap and carefully prodded it, Velvet peered over his shoulder to where Bea was now fending off a furious wave of Ravagers. The woman was now spinning in the sand, smashing down anything that came within range of her flail. The Ravagers claws glanced harmlessly off her corset and arm guard as she knocked them from the sky. Velvet’s fingers twitched towards Anesidora, eager to snap a picture of the huntress in action. “Shouldn’t you go help your friends?”

“Nah,” Lex dismissed, shrugging one shoulder. He set Coco’s ankle back on the ground. “They’ve got it. Besides, Bee could take a Ravager swarm in her sleep. She’ll kick my ass to Atlas and back if I try to help.” He stood and leaned back down to grab Coco under her arms. Velvet moved away as he dragged her teammate upwards, shifting so that she leaned heavily into his side, broken ankle dangling above the ground. “Come on.”

Velvet’s gaze flicked between the three huntsmen still in action. The remaining Ravagers were entirely preoccupied with them. She risked a quick trip to scoop up Gianduja and followed him back to the overturned truck. Sky and Indi were still safely sheltered behind it. Lex set Coco down on the door that had fallen open into the sand and glanced around the side to check on his teammates. Velvet put Gianduja down next to her and gave her shoulder a quick squeeze. Then she leaned around Lex to see as well.

Across the sand, Bea’s swarm had thinned considerably. She’d switched her flail into some sort of club, and was swinging it gleefully into the crowd. One particularly bold Grimm dove at her head and snagged her bandana off, catching at the strange growths where her ears should have been. “Hey!” Bea snapped, offended. She snatched the Ravager out of the air by the head, crushing its skull in her grip. The other Grimm screeched and dove at her. She backhanded one into the ground, quickly smashing its head beneath her boot. The rest soon followed them. Velvet shook her head and knelt back down next to Coco. 

She clearly didn’t need any help.

\--------------------------

“We should get out of here.” 

Of all the members of Team BLNC, Bea Shade was the most distinctive. Most of it was because she was the only woman, and faunus, of the group. But part of it was because of Bea herself. 

In her time at Shade Academy, Bea and her team had gained notoriety for many things, chief among them the skill and power they had. They were a little like CFVY themselves in that regard, though Coco would never go so far as to say they were better than her own team. Bea, rumors said, was especially dangerous, with a semblance and weapon that dealt enough damage to make her a one-woman wrecking crew without any need for help. 

Coco had never found out what her semblance actually was, but it had to be something special, given that she still had the attention of students years after graduating. Some of the older students claimed she was unnaturally strong, some said she could blow things she touched up, and others still exaggerated it until she could blow herself up. But whatever the case of her semblance, _damn _, the rumors had not exaggerated how fascinating she was to look at.__

____

____

Her lavender hair was short and kinky, framing a round, dark face filled with clustering freckles and a scar shaped like an x on her chin. Her eyes were peridot green and drooped like a puppy, giving her a sweetly innocent appearance. Her - ears? Was that what those things were? What on Remnant - were the same color as her skin, and came up in three stalks, with a comb of purple sticking out all over. She was short and stocky, body toned and beautifully muscular. Several scars peeked out from under her clothes. When Bea turned, Coco could see a large, angry reddish scar covering her upper back, left arm, and neck. 

Her outfit was fairly simple: just a light brown corset with gold and black detailing, a full pauldron sleeve around her right arm, a wrist bracer with a bandage glove on her left. Her pants were dark brown and full of pockets, tucked into her belt and boots. She carried a decently-sized backpack and had a large violet sash around her waist. Coco noted a modest shoelace necklace adorning her throat but no other jewelry.

“ - If we take them back to Dacite, we can probably convince my dad or Zuri to look at her and the other two.” Bea continued. Coco blinked herself into focus and looked up at the woman. Her team had quickly dispatched the remaining Grimm and were now standing a few feet away, quietly discussing what to do with their rescues.

The blond boy leaned up against Lex’s spear and stumbled as it shifted in the sand. “Look, I don’t care where we take them, so long as we do it quick. It’s getting dark. We’ll be walking blind within the hour, and I don’t know if you're aware of this, but you’re the only one who can see in the dark.”

Bea pursed her lips and made a teasing face at his snark. “Whatever, dickhead. Fine. Lex, you and Nash salvage what you can from the wreck. We’ll take what we can back to Dacite and figure things out tomorrow. Maybe someone in Cirrene will be willing to give them a lift to Coquina or out to Shade. Cambry, take care of them while I get this truck set back up.”

The other three nodded and dispersed. Lex and the dark-haired bowman wandered off, shoving at each other, and began sifting through the scattered wreckage. Bea and the blond approached the truck again.

“So…” Velvet started before they could say anything. “We’re going to Dacite? I’ve never heard that name before.”

“It’s our tribe,” The boy told her, and didn’t elaborate. He glanced curiously at Sky and Indi, still huddled behind the wagon.

“Poor bastards,” Bea sighed, sounding torn between sympathy and mockery. “Look like tourists, out here unprepared. Probably came out here hoping for something better than Vale. Should have gone to Anima.” Cambry shrugged as she shook her head. “Well, I’m Bea, by the way. Leader of this team. This idiot here is my partner, Cambry. The redhead back there is Lex, and the cutie is Nash, his partner.”

“Coco Adel,” Coco reintroduced herself. 

“I’m Velvet Scarlatina,” Velvet said, ears twitching against a sand-filled breeze.

“A pleasure to meet you both, I’m sure.” Bea tipped her head and elbowed Cambry, jerking her thumb towards the siblings and their truck. He nodded, and she sauntered off.

Cambry leaned over and offered Coco his arm. “She thinks she’s the boss of us,” he said, but the words were warm and filled with a soft sort of pride. Coco wondered how close they really were.

“That’s because I am,” Bea called back. Cambry, looking amused, shook his head and winked conspiratorially at Velvet.

“You guys look like students,” he remarked, picking up where Bea had left off. “What are you doing so far from Shade?”

He helped Coco to an overturned crate half-buried in the sand and sat her down on it. Coco was a little miffed to need so much help, but there was no way she was going to be standing on this leg anytime soon. Besides, given the general mistrust most Vacuan’s seemed to have towards outsiders, she wasn’t about to risk losing any of the huntsmen’s good-will by rejecting Cambry’s hospitality. Especially when it was just her and Velvet to the four of them.

Bea herded Sky and Indi away and returned to the truck. She bent down to dig her hands under the buried side and set her feet carefully. _Three, two, one, _she mouthed and hoisted it up. With a wild cascade of sand, it creaked upwards. She shifted slowly underneath it, pushing it back onto its wheels.__

____

____

“We were looking for these two,” Coco said over the noise, nodding towards the Picotee siblings. Most of the native Vacuans were more willing to trust ‘new’ outsiders if they showed a willingness to help others, so she figured that would be the best place to start. “We missed Cirrene on our way here last year and thought we may as well check it out now while we had a break. When we got there, we heard they’d run off with only a truck and a map and came to look for them.” 

“Well, looks like you found them, and more,” Cambry replied conversationally, sitting down across from Velvet.

“Unfortunately.” Velvet agreed.

“Been a while since I’ve seen a Ravager swarm that big.” He looked up as Bea returned to his side. Her hair was now brown with sand, raining down her face to catch in her eyebrows and eyelashes every time she moved. She bent over and stuck her head right above Cambry’s face, then brought her hands up and shook as much sand as she could right onto him. He spluttered loudly and fell onto his back, spitting sand as Bea cackled. “Ugh, man, I was talking.” 

Nash rolled his eyes as he strolled past them, arms piled with pouches and woven blankets. He dropped them into the back of the truck and stepped out of Lex’s way, watching the two partners each other into the sand. “Would you two cut it out? We don’t have water to spare for Bea.” 

That got them to stop. Lex dropped a couple of crates next to his pile and tossed Bea her balled-up cloak and bandana. She trailed her fingers across a tear at the bandana’s edge, then shook the sand from it and wrapped it over her strange ears.

“I’m gonna regret that,” she said mournfully, as she pulled her cloak over her head and helped Cambry back up. “You two got everything?”

“Few boxes left,” Lex nodded back to the dunes. “Nothing in ‘em. They’re wood and splintered, wasn’t even gonna bother grabbin’ ‘em.”

“Alright then,” she said, waving the Picotees over. “We got everythin' we can use. Everyone ready to go?”

Sky and Indi nodded, climbing into the back of the truck. Velvet helped Coco up and over to the front. They slid into the passenger side as Lex wrenched open the dented other door and climbed in. Cambry crawled into the back and pulled the doors shut behind him, carefully holding the broken lock closed. Once everyone had settled into place, Bea and Nash did one last check and gestured to Lex. The truck roared to life.

They rumbled on for what seemed like hours to Coco's restless mind, the truck quiet except for occasional short bursts of conversation between Lex and Cambry and snores from the dozing Picotees. The sun lowered steadily in the sky, but Bea and Nash marched on in front of the hood, never pausing their rhythm. With the windows half down and the engine rumbling, Coco could just barely hear them chattering steadily, words blurry, often laughing or shouting happily. Velvet had offered to hop down and walk in one of their places, but they insisted they were alright, no need for her to worry. Coco had laid a hand on her shoulder and flicked her eyes between three Huntsmen visible to them. It was a perfect opportunity to get a good look at them, even if she wished her damned leg didn't prevent her from helping too. They may have kept the attention of Shade's pupils, but most Huntsmen-in-training had much more pressing matters than gossiping about old students outside their most recent accomplishments. They were something exceptional, but Coco knew so little about them they may as well have been Great War myths, not Huntsmen only a few years her senior.

They were a good-looking bunch, she decided, shifting so she could get a good look at Cambry in the dangling rearview mirror. She may not have gone for men, but she could tell a good-looking guy when she saw one. She’d caught glimpses of them around the city and the Academy before, slipping in and out of clubs and classrooms and crowds down in the market, stalking the alleys and doing...whatever it was they were there to do. They sometimes sat in on classes and helped with lessons, but those were mostly for the younger students. Opportunities scarce and fleeting, she never had a chance to get a close look. Why not take the one she had now?

Lex was the closest to her, but hard to look out without blatantly turning to stare. He was the youngest looking of the group, a little shorter than Coco herself just from sitting side by side. He was quite tan, similar in skin tone to Yatsuhashi, but far more slender. Earlier, she'd seen some kind of scars on the left side of his face. His spiky hair was as orange as Nora Valkyrie's. His eyes, though, were a much darker teal than what Coco remembered the younger girl's had been. 

His outfit was very... loud, to say the least. He had a large blue jacket open over a white undershirt, with a brown belt over his shoulder and several colorful patches sewn on. The shirt was tucked into his dark blue pants, which in turn were tucked into his boots. There was a teal bandana around his neck. Silver chains jingled at his waist in tandem with the whispers of his gloves against the steering wheel. He hummed softly, a little lost to the world.

There were few tales of what he was like personality-wise, but from what Coco had heard of him, he was surprisingly intuitive. He was his team’s people person, whatever that was supposed to mean. The only time she’d ever caught more than a glance at them before today, Lex had been standing between Bea and a furious market-goer, rapidly calming him down. 

Nash was easier to see, walking up on her right, but she couldn't see his face except for the moments he turned to signal Lex or speak to Bea. He was the tallest of the group by a longshot, towering over Coco easily, though he wasn’t quite as tall as Yatsuhashi was. His brown hair was braided into tight cornrows that swept down past his shoulders. His skin was dark, even more so than Fox's, and glowed softly in the light of the sunset. He seemed much calmer than his teammates and their uncontained energy, but he laughed and snipped with Bea just as gleefully and childishly as she did him. 

His outfit lacked a jacket or cloak like his teammates, but he wore a red and amber archery shoulder guard similar to Bea's pauldron. His long-sleeved shirt was light gold, bunched up at one elbow to show a red wrist guard, with a red half glove on his other hand. His pants were chestnut, and his boots were dark brown. His quiver was strapped across his back, with his bow folded under it. Coco had heard that he never missed a shot with it. He apparently rarely started trouble himself but never failed to back his teammates up when they needed him. It was said that the bite of his words struck true as his arrows. 

Cambry was in the back, hidden by the fading light, but Coco had gotten a good look at him earlier. He was both taller and broader than Lex, still willowy but with quite a bit more muscle, and his grip on her arm had been firm. He had light brown skin and curly blonde hair that had seemed to almost blend together in the truck's shadows. His jaw was covered in light stubble, with four pale claw scars running down the right side of his face. His eyes were a bright vermilion, reminding her a little of the way Yang's lilac eyes had turned red with her semblance. 

He wore an olive green jacket buttoned halfway up his chest, with a shirt she was pretty sure had been a very light yellow underneath. He had grey-brown cargo pants, with two golden thigh holsters for his guns. Like his teammates, he wore sturdy boots, but his were much shorter and buckled rather than laced. An olive cap perched on his head, with little gold vines threaded around the brim.

Rumors said very little about him. Coco had heard that he was Bea's right-hand man and fiercely loyal to her. She'd also heard that he was invincible - nothing ever seemed to touch him. Coco wasn't sure if she believed that, but she hoped she'd have the chance to find out soon. It was rare she met a team of Huntsmen whose reputation outweighed her own. She was interested in finding out if they were as good as people believed.

The conversation petered off for a while. After several minutes of silence, Lex sighed and shoved his window down further. "Hey, uh, Bea?"

“You can hold it,” she said immediately, turning back to grin at him. Cambry burst into peals of warm laughter as Lex rolled his eyes with all the exasperation of a man who’d been down this path many a time before.

“Okay, that is not what I was going to say, but now that you mention it...”

Cambry’s laughter got louder, startling Sky and Indi awake. Nash was shaking his head. 

“Yeah, what?” Bea asked. If she had been speaking to anyone, the words might have sounded rude. Instead, they were indulgent. Soft.

“I’m getting a little tired, if Nash -”

"Don't even start with me." Nash snapped, cutting him off and turning to glare at him. Velvet startled next to Coco, concerned by the violent shift in tone from the gentle banter of before. “I’m not in the mood.”

"Dude, I was just gonna ask if you wanted to drive the rest of the way."

"Oh," Nash said, looking chastised. “Sorry, then. No, I’m okay. I thought you were gonna say - yeah. I’m fine.”

Bea angled herself to walk up next to him. She touched his elbow and lowered her voice, speaking rapidly. Her eyes turned meaningfully towards Coco and Velvet. Nash followed her gaze, then nodded softly. Something was going on here, and the two of them didn't want her or Velvet to know.

The two of them separated. “Sorry, Lex,” Nash called loudly again. “If you want, I can drive.”

"That's good, because we're outta sunlight. Switch." Cambry called.

The group did a quick rotation of places, moving Cambry up to the front to walk. As she moved into Nash's position, Bea rapped on Velvet's door. "Actually, Cam, wait. Hey girlie, you still good to help? Won't be for much longer, we're almost home."

"Sure." Velvet replied, glancing at Coco before slipping out of the truck and stretching. Lex nudged Coco gently and tipped his chin at her vacated spot. "What do you need me to do?"

"Can you see in the dark?" Bea asked. Coco slid down, Lex moving after her. Nash climbed in the front seat and yanked the door shut. Velvet nodded, but her reply was drowned out by the bang. "Good. You can take this side, then. Just keep an eye out and lemme know if something's coming up on that side that we need to clear out or avoid."

Cambry hopped back into the truck, and they resumed travel, though a bit slower this time. On two occasions, they had to stop and readjust their direction, once having to move a large cluster of shattered stones out of the way of the truck wheels. Velvet marched in front of the truck, kicking smaller rocks or debris out of their path. Bea, to Coco's surprise, kept up a light conversation with her, asking questions that weren't personal but kept her talking. Velvet had seemed uncertain at first, but after Coco shrugged and nodded in response to her questioning glance, she answered them with more confidence. After another half hour, Bea paused suddenly.

"Alright, boys. We're here," she called.

Coco glanced up through the dirty windshield. A small settlement, formed mostly of large tents and open-backed trucks, was gradually coming into view. A fire pit danced in the middle, small figures clustered around it. As their vehicle crossed the final half-mile, several people came out to meet them.

"My friend," Cambry began, climbing up next to Coco as the tribe members swarmed around the truck. "Welcome to Dacite." He clapped Lex on the shoulder and went back to shake Sky and Indi awake. In front of the truck, Bea gestured to two identical girls with white hair. Coco couldn’t make out her words but she seemed to be introducing Velvet to the two of them. After a moment she nodded and vanished into a nearby tent, and the girls led Velvet through the crowd over to the truck. 

“Hey,” Velvet said, opening Coco’s door as Lex and Nash climbed out the other side. “This is Opal and Olive, Bea said they’ll take us to someone who can look at your leg.”

Coco looked between the three of them and sighed. “Yeah, sure.” The new girls caught her between them as she slipped down from the seat. 

“That way,” one of them told Velvet, pointing to a tent set up against the side of a truck. Velvet led the way carefully across the center of the camp, whispering quiet apologies as she nudged past people. When they reached the tent, a tall young woman with black hair, stylish black glasses, and a largely blue outfit opened the flap for them and directed them inside. The side of the truck was open and propped with ramps, with several tables and drawer cabinets inside.

“Just put her down on the table, please, girls, thank you.” Her voice was kind and delicate. As they set Coco onto a free table, she smiled at Velvet. “Are you hurt anywhere, hun?”

“Uh, no. No, I’m not. Just her.” Velvet said. 

“Good,” the woman nodded. “Why don’t you have a seat next to her anyway? You two, shoo. I know for a fact neither of you have eaten since this morning, how many times do I have to remind you that you need food?” She chased the white-haired twins out the opening. Coco was a little surprised to see that she had a long, fluffy white tail, covered in large two-tone spots.

“Right, right, anyway.” She turned back to Coco and Velvet. “My name is Azura. I’m one of the resident medics of the tribe, so I can help you out. What’s bothering you, hun?”

“My leg.” Coco explained hesitantly. “Grimm attacked our truck and I was thrown from the back. Screwed up my ankle I think.”

“Sure, sure.” Azura said, approaching Coco. “I’m sure I can do something about that, but I’ll need to check you out first. Are you okay with me touching you and moving your clothes?”

“I-yeah.” Coco said. “Of course. Just don't rip them or anything.”

The faunus laughed quietly. “Don't worry, I'm just going to move your pant leg up so I can check your foot and ankle. Your knee seems to be okay so I’m not too worried about that.”

Coco grit her teeth as the other woman took hold of her foot and slowly pushed the pant leg up. “Shit.” She cursed.

“I'm so sorry,” Azura winced sympathetically. “Usually for things like this I'd have Lex or Kore help me, but they're both a little preoccupied right now. Does it just hurt when I touch your ankle or does it go higher up?”

“Just the ankle.” Coco said. Azura nodded and rotated her foot gently. Velvet squeezed her shoulder as she hissed again. 

“Does that - yep that answers that question. Would you like to wait for a few minutes, I can go see if Lex is free? I don’t want to cause you any pain.” 

Before Coco could answer, loud laughter came from outside the tent. The opening flaps were shoved aside as Bea strolled in. She let them fall behind her, smacking someone else loudly in the face. 

“Nevermind.” Azura said as Lex wrangled the tent aside and darted after Bea, jabbing at her as she danced out of the way. She raised her voice. “You two better not be hiding anything from me.”

Bea turned away from Lex and her a playful grin. “I didn’t tell you I had internal bleeding once and you never let me forget it. Look, we brought you food.”

Azura glanced over her shoulder to the covered bowl Bea held. “Thank you, Bee. Lex, be a dear and come help me please.” 

“Sure thing.” Lex said. Bea dropped the bowl of food onto another table and hopped up to sit next to Coco. 

“So what’s the verdict, doc? How long’s she got left?” 

Azura sighed. “You want her removed? I can have her removed.” She told Coco.

“Nah, she’s okay.” Coco said, turning to Bea. There was something so... odd about her. Her cheer was infectious, and her snark felt sisterly rather than cruel. It was actually kind of soothing. “Hey, um, where are Sky and Indi?”

“The tourists? Took ‘em over to my dad. They didn’t seem to have any, ah, pressing injuries.” She smiled like she and Coco were sharing a great secret. “To be honest, I didn’t stay over there with them long. Least they were better than the last loner we found.”

Lex laughed. “You mean the one who spent an hour trying to tell you that your name was supposed to be pronounced ‘Bee’ instead of ‘Bay-uh’?”

“Yeah. That dick.” She said, pointing at Lex with dramatically wide eyes. Azura smacked the side of her thigh. “Azura, I am a whole adult, I am allowed to swear if I so chose.”

“Of course, little fish,” her friend said indulgently. “Coco, hun, it looks like you just have a fracture. I can’t do an x-ray here, though, so whenever you get back to Shade, maybe have someone else take a look. I can give you a little boost and wrap you up. Lex, hand me, yes, thank you.” Lex tossed her a roll of white wrap and some safety pins.

"Alright." Azura said, taking hold of Coco's leg again. Bea's hand hovered above Coco's. Wanting to see what would happen, and feeling strangely compelled by the woman's mere presence, Coco took it. "Ready? This will hurt a bit, but Lex will do his best to help."

Coco wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but none of these people seemed particularly threatening right now so she nodded anyway. Azura closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Velvet gasped as her hands began to glow light blue with aura, and an uncomfortable itching sensation set into Coco's leg. It increased rapidly into a scratchy, grinding pain and Coco cried out, squeezing Velvet and Bea's hands. Then, suddenly and with no warning, it was gone. 

Azura took her hands back and gathered up the wrap. A strange feeling lingered in Coco's leg, deep down in the very bone as she bound it up and carefully pinned the edges of the wrap down. 

"My semblance allows me to infuse my aura into others to accelerate their natural healing," she explained. "Your ankle will still need time to heal fully on its own, but I've shortened that time as much as I could. I can't heal you fully, I'm sorry."

"No need to be sorry," Coco said in shock, turning her foot slightly. "This um. This works. Thank you."

"No problem!" Azura said cheerfully. "Now that you're fixed up, if you like, Bea and Lex can take you to go get something to eat now, and find you a place to sleep for the night."

"That'd be great." Velvet said.

Bea helped Coco down from the table and guided her outside. Lex and Velvet followed slowly, Velvet now holding a crutch with a large flat circle on the end. Coco took it and leaned against her. Together they followed Bea and Lex across the camp to where Cambry and Nash sat at a long table jutting out of a truck. With them sat a sandy-haired young man maybe a year or two Coco's junior, and an elegant, modestly dressed red-haired woman a few years her senior.

"Hey, Matty," Bea said, dropping a kiss on the young man's hair and ruffling it. "Hey, Roo."

"Cambry was just telling us about your adventure today," the woman said to her. She raised an eyebrow at Coco and turned away. Coco felt dismissed.

"Ignore her," Matty said. "She's a brat. I'm Mattian, Bea's younger brother. This is Rooney, our adopted sister."

Velvet and Coco took a seat and introduced themselves again. Bea went to the fire pit and stopped to speak to a tall woman with dark hair and massive curving horns. Coco couldn't see her face at this angle. "Our mother." Mattian said when he saw where she was looking. Coco watched the woman hand Bea two bowls and kiss her forehead, sending her back to the table.

"For you, and for you." Bea said when she returned, dropping the bowls in front of Coco and Velvet. "Hope you like spicy bat stew, because it's pretty much all we have right now."

Coco and Velvet shared a look, then Coco shrugged and dug in. Velvet picked at her stew delicately. "Can I ask -" she started at the same time Lex said:

"So why were you -"

They both fumbled for a second, insisting that the other continue. Lex won that argument. "Are you sure?" Velvet asked. He nodded. "O-okay. I just…wondered how you guys found us."

"Lex's semblance is empathy." Cambry told them. "He can feel everyone's emotions. It's his sixth sense, so to speak."

Lex nodded. "When we were out there, we were heading towards the city. I felt you guys. Everyone seemed pretty scared or hurt. Figured we should help out."

Coco slurped down the last of her bowl. Bea snickered, trying to squish her smile. Coco felt briefly embarrassed before reminding herself that she was Coco Adel, she didn't get embarrassed. It didn't help very much.

She met Lex's eye and felt her cheeks flush. Lovely to have someone who knew your every feeling, she thought. In the hopes of drawing the attention away from her embarrassment, she asked; "What was it you were going to say, then?"

"Just wanted to know why you guys were out there alone. Where's your teammates?"

"Cirrene." Velvet said. "We were looking for something. They stayed to see if they could find it."

"Well, then, I'm sure they'll be glad to see you back tomorrow." Bea dusted off her hands. "Done eating?" They both nodded. "Good. Hope you don't mind sharing a tent, Momma already put your friends up in one. We have a few extras."

Rooney and the boys stayed seated as she stood and gestured for Coco and Velvet to follow her. "Night," they all chorused. Velvet responded in kind, and Coco gave them a nod and a soft smile.

Bea led them to a small tent set up near one of the trucks. The inside was cramped and lumpy, but two bedrolls were already rolled out and covered in thick blankets. Bea ducked her head in after them. "Try and get some sleep, okay? We're gonna leave first thing in the morning, beat the noon heat. If you need anything, we're all in the truck with the white circle on the side, okay?"

They nodded. "Thank you," Velvet said, crawling into one of the beds. Coco reached out and clasped one of her hands. They smiled at each other, then Velvet rolled over and pulled her blanket up to her human ears.

Coco collapsed onto her bedroll. She probably wasn't going to sleep tonight, too wired from the unfamiliar setting and the pain in her leg and -

She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.


End file.
